Marion Thorpe

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Marion Thorpe with the Earl of Harewood on the announcement of their engagement in 1949PA Archive

Last updated at 12:00AM, March 10 2014

Founder of the Leeds piano competition who married the Queen’s cousin and stood by her scandal-hit second husband Jeremy Thorpe

There was much more to Marion Thorpe’s life than the two marriages – to the Queen’s cousin, the Earl of Harewood, and to the Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe, whose tribulations thrust her into the public eye.

She was one of those refugees from Hitler’s rule who did much to enrich Britain’s cultural life after the war, notably through her support of Benjamin Britten and by setting up the Leeds International piano competition. She might have had a fine career herself as a concert performer but for renouncing the stage to bring up her children, and perhaps for a shyness which